Saturday, May 15, 2010

Difference between Protestant and Catholic Worship

That wise old Anglican cove, Fr Hunwicke has this to say about the contrast between Protestant and Catholic worship:

In other words, for classical Protestantism, the Eucharist is an acted word; it is a sermon dramatised; it is intended to instruct the witnesses and draw their heart to that saving faith which justifies. But for the Catholic, it is an opus operatum; an action which by the powerful and indefectible promise of Christ is objectively (not merely subjectively and in the heart of the believer) effective. So the celebrant is not in the business of moving or instucting or edifying or converting the viewer - if such may be the the by-products, even useful ones, of the action, they are not its intrinsic purpose. The priest's intrinsic purpose is to confect and offer the Body and Blood of the Redeemer in sacrifice for the sins of men. Failure to realise this is at the heart of what is wrong with so much modern and 'relevant' liturgy; and, to judge from my own reading and experience, the error is just as pervasive and deep-rooted inside the Roman Communion as it is outside it.

Why a picture of Lancing College Chapel? Fr Hunwicke taught classics there for aeons.

Sweet and Gentle Jesus condescends to come to us both in flesh and spirit in the Holy Eucharist in the Holy Sacrifice whilst the protestants eat bread that cannot save them, for man cannot live by bread alone.

Fr Hunwicke's blog unfortunately has a resident anti-semite who believes in blood libels and all sorts of horrors which the Catholic Church has decisively repudiated. Fr Blake does not tolerate such evil nonsense on his blog.

That being said ,this detached observer wonders why Hunwicke is an Anglican in full communion with Canterbury and of course therefore with the recently consecrated lesbian "bishop" in the USA since his conception of the Papacy appears to be much nearer to Pius IX and Cardinal Manning than it is to that of Pope Benedict ,Fr Blake, or Eamon Duffy.

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

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